Sunday, November 22, 2009

Oh boy! It’s Image United!! The massive crossover story from a company that has openly criticized Marvel and DC for making giant crossover stories! Hypocrisy is awesome, especially when it is used to make money!

All of the original Image founders have returned to this story (Jim Lee on covers), and they’re bringing their original characters with them. Each creator will be drawing their own characters for this story. That means you will get to see characters brought back from comic obscurity, like Shadowhawk and Youngblood. Does this excite you? I’m not excited, that’s for sure. The majority of this cast is dead to me. They exemplify the dark ages of comics, which was the 90’s. The gathering of these characters is like going to a high school reunion. It’s awkward and you feel forced into it. Not to mention the original founders were not that great when it came to deadlines. The reason why most of these characters fell into obscurity is due to their books being late all the time. Whether all of these issues ship on time is anyone’s guess.

They also announced that Al Simmons, the original Spawn, will be the big bad for this story. You probably just thought “What does he mean ‘original’”? I thought Al Simmons was Spawn.” I know, that’s what I thought when I heard that information too. Apparently Spawn blew his own head off and there is a new Spawn, not that you probably care. Now Al is mad! How mad? He grew big horns on his head and started using HGH! You’ll see him in all of his evil glory in the picture above. You may notice that he looks just like Darkness from Legend. Tim Curry should be suing the pants off of these guys! On a side note, no make-up was used in the move Legend. Tim Curry appears in his natural form.

In true 90’s fashion there will be about 7 seven different covers to collect. There will probably be a foil, hologram, embossed variant of each at a later date. At $3.99 a piece, Image is really helping out their devoted fans in these difficult economic times. Thanks guys, I always thought paying my power bill was overrated anyways!

In the midst of this 90’s reunion, a new character emerges. His name is Fortress, pictured to the right, and here is what creator Whilce Portacio had to say about him.

Fortress is introduced as the ultimate mysterious new character with almost no understanding of what he is. He fumbles through the event, eventually finding it in his heart that he is part of this new whole and gives his all to protect Image.

What does that even mean? It sounds like Portacio doesn’t even know what’s going on with anything. Fortress better do something cool in the story, he has to make up for that costume somehow.

Thankfully, it was recently announced that Invincible will be in the event at some point. Why you don’t put your most popular character at the center of this story is beyond me, but at least he shows up. If you read Invincible on a regular basis you already saw an “Image United” in the “Invincible War” story. In my opinion, this was a crossover story that held true to what Image has been preaching for a while now. A self contained issue, with a huge story, that featured all of the characters from Image United. Not a seven issue blowout that will cost you about $25.00 to collect.

Either way, you’re probably going to read Image United #1 when it arrives at Coast City this Wednesday. I’ll be right there with you. Despite my complaints, I’m curious and I want to know what happens. I hope that I’m pleasantly surprised and I really love this story. It has potential to be really cool, despite the hypocrisy from it’s creators.

If you guys think I’m totally wrong about what I said above, then I want to hear about it! Please email me at chad@coastcitycomics.net. That’s right guys! I’m official now! I desperately want to hear from you. Tell me your hopes, dreams, anything you want. I have a lot of free time, so I’ll read anything you want.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

As the title of this post implies, I am going against an old cliche and selecting a back issue to read based solely on it’s cover.

The Flash #203 (1959 series) caught my eye when flipping through our back issue bins. The left side of the cover uses a photo background where the buildings and people have a filter applied to them which makes them look almost as if they were drawn. The Flash and half of Iris Allen are then drawn over the photo background. The contrast between the drawings and the real people and buildings makes for an interesting sight. The right side is completely drawn and is noticeably full of bright colors. This section is meant to represent the future so using a brighter color palette was a good choice. The combination of these two sides really captures the eye and makes you interested in what’s happening. Add in that Iris is trying to escape to the future, because she says that is where she belongs (WHAT!), and you have quite a cover! That’s why I picked it guys!

Enough of my art critique, how is the story? This tale, entitled “The Flash’s Wife is a Two-Timer”, is classic silver age storytelling and I really enjoyed it. The basic plot is that Iris, The Flash’s wife, discovers a locket that tells her she is from the future. Much like superman, her world was doomed and her parents sent her back in time so that she could be safe. The locket then causes her to be transported back to the future, but not before leaving a note saying she was being pulled 1,000 years into the future. I’m not entirely sure how she was able to calculate this, but luckily she did. The Flash arrives and finds the note and is alarmed. He then uses the time treadmill to travel into the future to get her back. Like most futures, everything has gone to hell. Water is being rationed, everyone lives in a weird cylinder and the country of Laos is in charge of Earth! The situation gets worse when The Flash has to battle Sirik the Supreme in order to bring Iris back to the present! Yikes, the future is a terrible place guys!

There is also a part in the beginning where Superman gives The Flash some guff about not being an alien. If I was The Flash I would have rolled my eyes, at a normal human rate. Superman would know that I purposely slowed myself down, so he could see my eye roll at his whiny cry baby speech. Superman is typically a jerk in any comic book during the sixties and seventies and he deserves this treatment.

It looks like that judging a book by it’s cover turned out to be a success this time. I encourage you to stop in the store and find some comic covers you enjoy. There may be an awesome story that you never have read before right behind those covers. We have a huge selection of back issues, so you have plenty to choose from.

That’s all for this week guys! As always, if you have any questions or comments then please feel free to direct them at uglystupidugly@gmail.com. We also have a discussion board on our Facebook page with a special section devoted to this blog. I want to hear from you people, so please feel free to contact me.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

I’m going to come right out and say it, I love the new Wonder Woman series. You can criticize me if you want but I stand firm in my initial statement. I understand that I may be labeled a sissy boy by a number of my comic brethren, but I encourage you to ignore the stereotypes associated with being a Wonder Woman fan and read on.

I really enjoy when a comic book takes characters from mythology and works them into a modern setting. You have seen this done well by The Incredible Hercules and Thor as of late, and now you can add Wonder Woman to this list. The exciting plot developments that occur between the Amazons, Zeus, Ares, Achilles, The U.N. and Wonder Woman are really interesting. It is a great mix of contemporary stories mixed with classical characters.

The fight scenes are brutal! How brutal? She definitely deflects a rocket off of her bracelets into the Cheetah and punches a guy through his head. Yeah, deal with that. Wonder Woman really puts the hurt on the bad guys in this one. If you are bored by the idea of W.W. dominating her opponents then you will be excited to know that she spends a few issues getting the snot kicked out of her. The fights are compelling, exciting and over the top but you can never be sure if W.W. is going to win. I think any comic fan can agree that is more interesting. She also head butts bad guys to victory, I may be in love here guys.

The art in this series looks amazing. From sea monsters rising from the depths of the ocean to the more tender moments between W.W. and her love interest, each is handle with care and detail. It’s a feast for the eyes and a fine example of what super hero comic book artist should be trying to achieve.

This recent series, which we have trades of mind you, really opened my eyes to how awesome Wonder Woman can be. I’ve started digging through our back issues and have found a lot of really good stuff which I think any comic book fan would really appreciate. If a guy who once thought Wonder Woman was the lamest of the lame can find some love for her, don’t you think you could too? Come on guys, give the lady a chance.